South and South East Asia

This report examines the lessons learned from the three year Monitoring the Implementation of Small Arms Controls (MISAC) project which addressed the barriers to the implementation of international controls on small arms such as the 2001 Programme of Action and the UN Firearms Protocol as well as regional control measures such as the EU Code of Conduct, the OSCE Small Arms Document the OAS Convention and the ECOWAS Moratorium. It assesses the key barriers to implementation as well as drawing lessons learned from those countries and regions which have implemented these controls.

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This paper aims to serve as background and analytical guidance for a conflict assessment of the Education for All programme in Nepal. In doing so it:

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This Review of the Education For All (EFA) programme in Nepal was commissioned by the Finnish Embassy on behalf of the group of supporting donors and undertaken by a team of consultants contracted by International Alert. The intention is to examine the EFA programme in relation to conflict and the current political crisis. Over a period of a month the team reviewed the relevant literature, visited the Mid-West and East, and engaged in consultation with stakeholders in Nepal.

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A legitimate, representative and capacitated civil society is essential for effective statebuilding and a condition for sustainable peace in Nepal. Donor support to civil society in the Nepali conflict context can be conceptualised in a number of ways. Strategies can broadly focus at the national, district and community levels, or on urban and rural constituencies. Similarly, a temporal distinction can be made between short-, medium- and long-term strategies.

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This publication makes the case that the local business community in conflict-affected countries can and should play a role in building peace. Linking up with other peacebuilding actors, and taking advantage of their own resources and skills, business communities should address socio-economic, security, political and reconciliation dimensions of peacebuilding. Section 1 is divided into 5 thematic chapters, and Section 2 contains 19 country case studies. Executive Summaries are also available in Spanish and French.

Executive Summary

Table of Contents

Introduction

Section 1: Thematic Chapter 1

Section 1: Thematic Chapter 2

Section 1: Thematic Chapter 3

Section 1: Thematic Chapter 4

Section 1: Thematic Chapter 5

Section 1: Conclusions

Section 2: Overview of Case Studies

Section 2: Afghanistan Case Study

Section 2: Bosnia and Herzogovina Case Study

Section 2: Burundi Case Study

Section 2: Colombia Case Study

Section 2: Democratic Republic of Congo Case Study

Section 2: El Salvador Case Study

Section 2: Guatemala Case Study

Section 2: Israel and Palestine Case Study

Section 2: Kosovo Case Study

Section 2: Nepal Case Study

Section 2: Nigeria Case Study

Section 2: Northern Ireland Case Study

Section 2: Philippines Case Study

Section 2: Sierra Leone Case Study

Section 2: Somalia Case Study

Section 2: South Africa Case Study

Section 2: South Caucasus Case Study

Section 2: Sri Lanka Case Study

Resumen ejecutivo: Las empresas locales y la paz: el potencial de construccion de paz del sector empresarial nacional

Résumé: Entreprise Locale, Paix Locale: Le potentiel du secteur privé national pour la construction de la paix

This paper grows from the meeting between IA and the Donor Group on 23rd November 2006 on how to respond effectively and appropriately in the changed political context in Nepal. Drawing on the comments and analysis at the meeting, this paper offers recommendations on priorities for donor engagement. The basic theme is that short-term goals can be achieved, but only if addressing the culture of power in Nepal is the starting point.

Briefing paper

Over the past 50 years, Nepal has received over USD11 billion in foreign aid.Today, almost 50 bilateral and multilateral donor agencies and more than 100 INGOs regularly provide aid to Nepal. International aid accounts for the majority of the national development budget whereby Nepal is dependent on aid (loans and grants) for basic service delivery, social and economic infrastructure development.Nepal remains, however, one of the poorest countries in South Asia, with over one quarter of the population under the poverty line and huge swathes of the country food-poor.

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International Alert (hereafter Alert) and Friends for Peace (FFP) began focusing on community security in mid-2006 in an effort to understand and address community security as a conflict prevention measure in support of sustainable conditions for peace and development.

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One key weakness of the current peace process in Nepal is the failure to address diverse and complex security needs at the local level, while focusing instead on the issues of national security over community security, and physical security over human security. The peace process has therefore failed to address a fundamental underlying cause of the conflict - the ingrained culture of exclusivity that characterises every arena of public life in Nepal and which perpetuates the insecurity of many vulnerable and marginalised groups.

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Until a decade ago, India was regarded largely as a poor developing country with low visibility on the global political and economic front. A multitude of factors, most prominently its emerging global economic strength, have led India not only to redefine its self-image but also to adopt a new political role both internationally and within its immediate neighbourhood.

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This paper aims to summarise the key community security concerns and issues that were voiced by youth and student groups in consultations carried out in Sunsari and Morang districts between the 25th September and the 5th November 2007. Voluntary ‘Youth Steering Committees’, comprising active and knowledgeable youth stakeholders, have played a key role as representatives for their district and in steering the project process. Local level interactions were then held in order to understand the particular issues facing rural youth.

English - Youth Speak out on Community Security in the Eastern Terai

Nepali - Youth Speak out on Community Security in the Eastern Terai

The failure of Nepal's nascent peace process to address the diverse peace needs of marginalized and excluded communities at the grassroots level threatens to undermine possibilities for long-term sustainable peace in the country. Nepalese society has long been characterized by multiple forms of exclusion, divided along fault lines of, inter alia, ethnicity, caste, gender and economic status. Exclusion, in its multifarious forms, is widely recognized to be a major contributing factor to the past decade of conflict in Nepal.

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Climate change is upon us and its physical effects have started to unfold. That is the broad scientific consensus expressed in the Fourth Assessment Review of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change. This report takes this finding as its starting point and looks at the social and human consequences that are likely to ensue – particularly the risks of conflict and instability.

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Between September 2007 and January 2008 International Alert and Friends for Peace conducted a research and dialogue process with affected youth in Sunsari and Morang. The overarching aim of this project is to strengthen youth voices on community security needs and perspectives across different identity lines in the eastern Terai. The aim of this paper is to outline the key community security concerns voiced by young people in Morang and Sunsari districts and reflect these voices up to policy and decision makers at the national level.

Briefing paper

This report reflects some of the perspectives and lessons learned from the Philippine-Nepal Exchange on the Peace Aspects of Constitution-making that took place in Kathmandu in August 2008. The report includes pertinent lessons from the Philippines experience of constitution-making from the perspectives of a Filipino peace practitioner, who served as a member of the Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Philippines Constitution.

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